Rise Of The Phoenix
by beate73
Summary: When Edward's Tattoo artist bailed on him the last thing he thought was that he would be lusting over was his replacement, and going places he never thought he would find himdelf. AH, rated M for a reason, kids.


**AN:** Another repost! I pulled it, reworked it some, and am now reposting. It just belongs here in the world of Twilight, and I wanted it back on here. I hope you still like it, and that it is better than before.

When I first wrote this one, I managed to mess things up and had to have four people pull me out of it. You heard me right. Four. I'm forever grateful to **Ezzery**, **Megsly**, **stavanger1** and **phoenixhunter41** for being there and helping me out when I most of all just wanted to give up.

Deciding to polish this up and repost it, I knew I needed help. I owe a million thanks to my partners in crime; **Beautiful** **Figment** and **GypsySue**, for helping me with pointing out all the things I didn't see and polish this up.

Originally written for the _"Tattward and Inkella" One-Shot Contest._

_**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters._

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**Rise Of The Phoenix**

**by Beate73**

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I was absentmindedly scratching the new tattoo on my chest with my fingertips while waiting for the red light to change. While I had been waiting for the outline on my back to heal, I had gotten a smaller tattoo done on my left pec. Now it was healing and itching like a mofo. Just as the light was about to change I heard a Harley drive up next to me. I was driving my black Saab 9-3 convertible with the top down, and the noise of the bike was drowning out everything else. It tore out ahead of me and my jaw dropped. The rider was the hottest chick I had ever seen.

Praying that the next light would be red, I gunned my Saab hoping to catch up to her. She did indeed have to stop at the next light, and I slowed down and stopped so that I could get a better look at her. She was wearing low-rise leather pants that emphasized her round ass, a tiny leather vest that almost made her breasts spill over, and high-heeled boots that made her legs go on forever. Wild brown hair was flying everywhere and she was wearing silver bracelets on both of her wrists. I couldn't make out her face through all the hair, but with a hot body like that, she had to be pretty.

When I was done savoring every curve of her shapely body, I noticed that her right shoulder had a tattoo.

_Nice. _

She drove off on her Harley and on to the next set of lights, and I tried to hang on, not quite done yet with looking at her. Again, waiting at the red light, she leaned over to wipe something off of her pants. That's when I noticed the tattoo on her lower back. Straightening back up, she brushed her hair away and I had a clear view of her profile. She was classically beautiful, I could tell, but I couldn't see her eyes from where I was sitting.

She took off as the lights turned green, and hitting a green wave, she was gone before I could catch up with her again. I sighed at the loss of the eye candy and tried to concentrate on the traffic. I blasted the volume on my stereo, listening to the demo of my next album. It was long overdue but I'd hit a mental block that rendered me unable to write both lyrics and music. Instead of sitting around the studio and stressing out about it, I had spent the last few months getting new ink. My regular tattoo artist suddenly moved out of town, but recommended one of his buddies to continue the work on my back before he skipped town. So far all I had was the outline of the phoenix and the flames surrounding it.

Sighing, I made my way onto the street where the tattoo shop was supposed to be located. I hoped whoever Jacob referred me to was a good artist. There were too many idiots with a tattoo gun who had no idea what they were doing. I found the shop without any problems and pulled into one of the parking spots in front of it. As I was getting out of the car I saw the Harley from earlier, only the woman was nowhere in sight. Scanning the street both ways I didn't spot her anywhere.

After locking up my car, I turned to the tattoo shop and entered. Inside, the shop was empty. I was early for my appointment so I browsed the art they had on the walls; most of it was generic and uninteresting. I had my back to the counter when a booming voice greeted me. "You must be Edward!"

I walked over and extended my arm for a handshake. "Yeah, hi. I came a little early, hope that's all right."

"Oh, that's fine. I'm Emmett by the way, and Bella should be out in a minute."

"Bella?" I asked.

"Yeah, your new tattooist. She's just getting ready for the day." I nodded, somewhat surprised that it was a 'she'. I think Emmett sensed my apprehension, "I know what you're thinking, but Bella is the best at what she does." He grinned at me. His grin was infectious, and I couldn't help grinning back at him.

Emmett had known my previous tattooist pretty well and was in the middle of telling me all sorts of funny stories about him when we heard someone clear their throat behind us. We both turned around and I felt my jaw hit the floor.

_It was the Harley chick!_

She was beautiful. I was so busy staring at this gorgeous creature that I barely heard Emmett introduce us.

Bella, of course, noticed my staring and smirked at me as she extended her arm. Her handshake was firm and sure, and as I grabbed onto her hand I felt tingles go right through me.

_Intriguing._

I mumbled something to Emmett as I followed Bella and didn't pay attention to much else aside from how her hips swayed as she walked in front of me.

_She's going to do my tattoos? This will be the death of me, _I thought to myself as Bella led me to her workstation in the room at the back of the shop.

"Please, take a seat." Bella pointed to one of the chairs in the room. "So, Jacob bailed on you in the middle of working on your tattoo?" she asked me bluntly.

"Yeah, apparently he had a better gig out on the east coast." I couldn't stop the sigh at the end of that sentence. Nothing like an unfinished tattoo on your back.

"Jacob has always been flaky," Bella laughed and shook her head. "All right. I need to take a look your tattoo and see how far along it is so I can figure out how much work I have ahead of me." Nodding my head I pulled off my t-shirt. As I heard Bella's sharp intake of breath, I couldn't help the small smirk. I knew I was fit, hell, I worked hard to stay in shape. Looking up at her when the t-shirt was off, I noticed her staring at my nipple-rings. _Girl likes piercings, wonder if she has any herself..._

Bella looked up and blushed a little at having been caught staring and quickly turned around to grab the camera that had been sitting on a table nearby. "I'm gonna take a few photos of the tattoo, if you don't mind." I just shook my head and turned around, letting her do her job. Feeling Bella's cool hands touch my back I nearly jumped out of my skin. "Sorry about that," she said.

"That's all right, just warn a fella about cold hands next time," I laughed. It hadn't been just the coolness of her hands that made me jump. The current of energy I felt when she shook my hand, felt ten times stronger on my back.

"I'm guessing Jacob got all the outline done before he skipped town?" she asked as her fingers traced the tattoo.

"Yeah, the outline ink was still wet when he informed me that he would be leaving town."

"I'm just surprised he took on such a big job knowing full well he'd never be able to finish it," Bella mused. "You can put your shirt back on now," she said, turning away to put the camera down.

"So, Bella, can you finish what Jacob started?" I asked as I sat back down on the chair I'd been occupying earlier.

"Oh yeah, no problem. Do you have the drawing of the tattoo? Or do we need to figure out the color scheme from scratch?"

"No, I have the drawing," I said, pulling the piece of paper out of the back pocket of my jeans and handed it over to Bella.

She unfolded the paper and stared at the drawing for a while. "Mind if I keep this?" she asked and turned to look at me.

"Not at all," I said, looking at her.

"Oh shit," Bella turned back and looked at me with a small smile gracing her luscious lips, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to get undressed again..." she blushed again as she drew out the last word.

"Oh really?" I couldn't help but smirk at her apparent discomfort.

"Yeah, I forgot to take the measurements of your tattoo." She made a funny face at that and I barked out a laugh a little too loudly. She wasn't the only one who was uncomfortable.

I took my t-shirt off again and watched her closely. _Yep, she definitely likes what she sees. _I turned away from her and let Bella do her job. This time, I was better prepared for her cool hands, and didn't jump at her touch. As she let her hands wander all over my back, it felt as if her fingers were sending electricity through my body and straight to my groin.

I started to sweat.

My jeans were now feeling rather uncomfortable. I tried to block off the sensation of having Bella's hands all over my back and tried to think of anything unsexy, but the sensation of her fingers touching my tattoo was impossible to drown out. Bella was quiet as she worked and wrote on her pad, and as she was touching me I could feel myself get more and more aroused.

The room was so quiet you would have been able to hear the infamous pin drop on the floor. I could hear Bella's breath hitch behind me a couple times, and the sound made me realize that she was probably just as turned on as I was. I needed to distract myself before I turned around and pounced on her. "When do you think you can start working on the tattoo?"

"Oh I can pretty much start filling in almost right away. Is tomorrow good for you?"

_Not soon enough, _I thought to myself. "Tomorrow is perfect," I said out loud.

"We'll get you started tomorrow, and after that, it'll be every couple weeks, depending on how fast you heal," Bella said and sat down by her desk again. "Oh, and you can get dressed again," she winked at me.

I gave her a look I hoped she would have a hard time resisting, and redressed slowly before I sat back down at the chair I had occupied earlier. Bella was breathing harder, making me want to jump up on the chair and scream 'score' like an idiot.

My appointment the next day was a late one, she had wanted me to be the last customer of the day. I was fine with being Bella's last customer; less chance for interruptions. I patted my pocket to make sure the condom was still there. _Hey, at least I was prepared. _If things should progress, I didn't want something like lack of protection to ruin the moment. Not that I expected anything to happen right away, _but a man could always hope, right?_

Bella was dressed even skimpier than she had been the day before. She wore a short leather skirt that barely covered her ass. _Girl must have a thing for leather,_ I mused. She had on a black leather halter top that zipped in the front. It barely covered her bellybutton and had a deep, plunging neckline that flaunted her generous cleavage and was so tight it left little to the imagination. Bella was showing off her smoking hot body nicely, and the outfit left her tattoos exposed. I couldn't help but admire her ink.

"Who did your tattoos?" The words were out of my mouth before I had time to filter my thoughts.

"Jacob."

_Huh._

"Really? So you know him well then?"

"You could say that." Bella didn't offer more information than that and I didn't want to pry about the why.

"At least he is good at what he does; those are amazing," I offered. Bella just smiled without making any further comments so I decided to leave the subject alone.

The next couple months were a mix of excitement and frustration as Bella worked on my tattoo. The sexual tension between us seemed to increase with every session and my desire for her grew as the condom burned a hole in my pocket every day it went unused. I went to every session I had with Bella, promising myself that it would be the day I would ask her out. At first, I had wanted to take her out for coffee, which seemed casual enough, knowing that if she declined, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Just coffee, right? Then again, I had wanted it to _be_ a big deal, so the next couple sessions I wanted to ask Bella out for dinner, but each time, I chickened out. I looked at her, the words on the tip of my tongue, but I could never make myself say them out loud. I was just that sure of Bella's rejection. So every few weeks I went in, kept mum and pined away.

I had dreaded coming in for the last session for weeks; I knew for certain it would be the last day I would see Bella. It would be the last time she would be touching me as she inked my skin. It would be the last time I would get to lose myself in the smell of Bella. I wanted to get a new tattoo just to be able to come back here, but getting ink 'just because' wasn't my style. Though, I was hoping that Bella would still be here when the time came to get a new tattoo.

Sitting in her chair as she was touching up the tattoo, I felt the knot in my stomach tense up. _Almost done, _I thought to myself. I would miss Bella's gentle touch.

The condom in my pocket was still mocking me. Why had I thought having sex with Bella in her chair ever was a real possibility? Bella wasn't exactly shy, but she was quiet; never saying much as she worked, so I hadn't really gotten to know her. I knew I was attracted to her like I hadn't been attracted to anyone before, and that her touch made my body buzz with an energy that left my skin burning for days. I also knew she was attracted to me just as I was attracted to her. Why hadn't I had the balls to do anything about it?

"All right, that's it." Her voice pulled me out of my thoughts. She moved away from behind me, so I got out of the chair and walked over to the mirrors in the room to look at the finished tattoo. As I moved, the muscles on my back made it appear as if the phoenix and the flames came alive. The wings of the phoenix spanned from shoulder to shoulder and had an amazing play of different shades of blue. The tail of the bird went down the right side of my back, across the side of my body and down to my hip. Its head and beak went up the back of my neck and ended just below my hairline. The body of the phoenix was blood red, and Bella had been able to capture movement in it with the way she had shaded it.

Around the bird were orange and purple flames. The whole image reflected the death and rebirth of my musical career. My inspiration had died, leaving me with nothing but ashes of what once was. Then, just like the phoenix rising from the flames, it had come back to me. My inspiration was alive like never before, and I had written songs that were much better and much more powerful than any of the stuff I had done before the inspiration died. Mostly, the tattoo was a reminder that no matter how low you get, you can always rise from the ashes and become more vibrant and more alive than you were before.

"You are a true artist, Bella. I doubt Jacob would have been able to do a better job. He is good, but you are amazing." I couldn't help but gush. Gushing made me feel like a girl, but I didn't care at that moment.

"Thank you, Edward, I'm glad you're happy with the tattoo." She moved in behind me, "Now let me put some ointment on the new ink and cover it up, then you're good to go." I felt her cool hands touch me once more and let myself get lost in the sensation just one more time.

When she was done, I got dressed. The tattoo had been paid in full last time I came in, so I stood awkwardly at the door to her room. I wanted to say something clever before I left, but words eluded me. Looking at her, I gave her a weak smile and nodded my head slightly before I turned around to walk out.

Walking through the shop, I noticed that it was dark. Apparently it was just me and Bella in the shop. I made it almost to the door out to the street before I stopped. Why was I walking out on a beautiful woman without at least trying to ask her out? It wasn't like I had anything to lose if she turned me down. I took a deep breath and turned around to walk back and found Bella standing almost on top of me. I held my breath and looked into her eyes. Brown eyes would for ever more be imprinted into my mind as soulful and sexy. Her eyes were very expressive.

I kept staring into her eyes as I slowly leaned towards her, without warning Bella threw her arms around my neck and latched her lips onto mine. Groaning, I put my arms around her frame and held her tightly to me, lifting her up in the process. Bella wrapped her legs around my waist and whispered against my lips, "My chair. Now." I continued assaulting her lips as I nearly ran back to her workstation. Once in her room, Bella unhooked her legs from around me and started tearing at my clothes. Letting go of her, I attacked her skimpy outfit. In seconds we were both naked, clinging on to each other.

"I love this piercing," Bella said breathlessly as she kissed and licked my pecs while her hand played with the barbell on my apadravya.

"I bet you do," I answered, "what about yourself?" I asked her.

She shook her head, "No, I'm too much of a wimp to do it."

"But you have tattoos," I chuckled.

"That's different." She shrugged her shoulders and pulled my head down for another kiss, effectively shutting me up.

I let myself get lost in the feeling of Bella's lips and hands on me. Lifting her up, I laid her down on her chair that was now reclined back and kissed my way down from her lips, across the chin to her collarbone. My hands trailed the curves of Bella's body before sliding up and around her breasts. While my tongue devoured her mouth, my hands massaged and pinched lightly on her peaks, making Bella moan as I got to know the feel of her. Letting one hand slide down her tight stomach, my fingers caressed her soft skin. _She's had her hands on me for months, now, it's my turn, _I thought to myself as I took my sweet time exploring.

My dick was screaming for me to pounce on her, literally twitching all over the place. I found her entrance with my fingertips and nearly died with happiness. She was hot, wet and ready for me. Letting go of her, I pulled my jeans up from the floor and quickly dug out the condom from its pocket. The same one that had been taunting me for months. Ripping off the wrapping, I quickly rolled the condom on and positioned myself at her opening. Not taking anything for granted, I had to make sure Bella was ready for me. I stopped all movement and looked at her, waiting for her approval.

"Stop...torturing...me," she said breathlessly.

"The lady gets what the lady wants," I grinned and pushed home. I groaned as I filled her up and held still, letting her get used to me.

"Oh God," Bella moaned, "for the love of everything that is holy, don't stop now!" Chuckling at her words, I pulled nearly all the way out and slammed back in. My intentions were to take things slow; I wanted to prolong the sensation of being inside her. She was having none of that. "Faster!" She looked at me with wild and fiery eyes. I complied.

We'd been tip-toeing around each other for so long, the sexual energy was ready to burst out of me. I'd been so busy dreaming about the possibilities of Bella, I hadn't even gone on a date with anyone all this time. Whacking off hadn't eased my tension, and I was so frustrated a mere whisper from Bella would have had me coming all over myself. If she was anywhere as frustrated as me, she kept it hidden well, simmering just under the surface. I could feel the crackle of it trying to break free, every time our skin brushed.

I quickened my pace at her request and it didn't take long for either of us to come hard and fast. Seeing Bella's face and hearing her shout my name as she came gave me a feeling that was out of this world. This beautiful goddess came undone in my arms. The pure bliss of it all made my own orgasm that much sweeter. Not really wanting to, I pulled out of her and disposed of the condom.

I picked Bella up off the chair and laid down on it, placing her on top of me. We stayed there, cuddling and kissing softly and just staring at each other. "The apadravya must have been painful to get," she whispered while playing with my pierced nipples.

"The pain was bad, but getting a hard-on was even worse for the first few months," I chuckled at the memory. Every time I had gotten an erection, it went down immediately due to the pain.

"I love it, though," Bella said and let her hand wander down. I sighed when I noticed the goosebumps on her. "Time to get dressed, princess, you're cold." Humming, she let go of my now semi-erect dick and I watched as she put her skimpy outfit back on. Getting my own clothes back on took me less than a minute.

Bella suddenly stopped what she was doing and turned to me. "Your tattoo! I totally forgot about it! Is it painful?" she asked me with wide eyes.

I moved my lower back a little, to see if it was uncomfortable in any way. "Nope. It's all good," I said and grinned down at her.

"Let me have a look anyway, just to make sure." Bella made a movement with her hand, signaling for me to turn around. I complied and marveled in the touch of Bella's cool fingers on me.

I had to know. I cleared my voice before speaking. "About today..." I didn't know how to say it without sounding like a lovesick puppy, so I took a deep breath, turned around and continued, "I don't want this to be it. I want to see you again."

Bella looked me in the eyes and smiled, "I'd love that." She wrinkled her eyebrows and looked away, "I don't want Emmett to find out yet, though. He's..." she hesitated.

"He's what?" I asked, feeling uneasy.

"He's...a little overprotective of me. Especially after..." She topped herself from saying whatever it was she had been about to tell me.

"After what?"

Bella let out a breath and rubbed her forehead. "Can we go somewhere and get something to eat? I'll tell you the story once I have some food in me, Edward," she said, looking at me. I just nodded my head and extended my hand to her. Grabbing my hand, Bella turned off the lights as we walked out through the door.

We found a small Thai place that was open late, not far from the tattoo shop. After we were shown to our table, I let Bella order our food while I stared at her, finding it impossible to take my eyes away. Bella kept shooting me glances, but she never squirmed in her seat or showed any sort of discomfort from my staring. The looks Bella sent me made _me _squirm in my seat, though. There was so much fire and passion in the woman sitting in front of me, it literally took my breath away.

After the food was in front of us, Bella took a deep breath. "You wanted to know about why Emmett is so overprotective with me." I just nodded my head, not wanting to interrupt anything just yet. "It's all because of what Jacob did to me," she continued while looking me straight in the eyes.

I could feel my eyebrows knit. "Jacob...? What's..." I stopped myself, not sure what to say.

Digging into her food, Bella looked at me with a slight smile. "Before I tell you, I want you to know that yes, I was hurt deeply. Yes, I resent the people involved. Yes, I've moved on and away from them." Again I just nodded my head, waiting for the story. "The reason why Jacob flaked out and skipped town the way he did, is because he cheated on me. With my dad." I stopped mid-chew and just stared at Bella, certain she was yanking my chain.

"Wh...ho...wh...huh..." I couldn't form any words to say anything that made any kind of sense. I was flabbergasted to say the least.

Bella just laughed at my reaction. "At least you haven't run off, screaming," she snickered.

"Why would I? Sure, I wasn't expecting anything like this, but why would I run off?" I asked incredulously.

"Because it's a fucked up story? Anyway, my dad came out of the closet when I was a kid. He cheated on my mom with other men while he tried to 'find himself', and my mom filed for divorce the very next day after finding out."

While we ate the main course, Bella told me more about growing up with a gay father and a bitter mother and how that had shaped her. It hadn't been an easy childhood, but it did make her stronger.

"How did your dad and Jacob hook up?" I hadn't gotten the gay vibe from Jacob in any shape or form while he worked on me.

"Oh, Jacob has always been bi-curious. I knew that going into a relationship with him. Though, he never took it further than both of us admiring the same boys, if you know what I mean. We were happy just being together. Or at least I was happy and thought he was too." Leaning back in her chair, Bella paused her story for a little bit. With a small smile playing on her lips, she looked thoughtfully somewhere over my shoulder. "Me and my dad kinda always had similar tastes in men. The same men turned our heads. It was never a problem until dad decided to seduce Jacob."

"Your dad seduced Jacob?" I couldn't stop the chuckle that followed my question. "I'm sorry, Bella, didn't mean to laugh. It's a shitty thing for you to have gone through, but I can't help feeling a little amused by the whole thing. As it is, it worked out in my favor." I looked at Bella and gave her my most wicked smile.

A slight blush tinted her cheeks, but the look Bella gave me made me want to grab her and give it to her good right on the table in the middle of the restaurant. "Yeah, it worked out nicely earlier." Bella leaned forward and flashed me her cleavage, making me seriously consider wiping the table clear of all dishes and having her right then and there.

After a little bit of heavy flirting on both our parts; light touches and soulful stares, lust reflecting back at each other, Bella continued her story. She told me about how shaken up Jacob had been about having been seduced by none other than his girlfriend's father. It had taken him a few weeks to come clean with her. It was bad enough that Jacob cheated on her; it was worse that he cheated on her with her father, someone she was close to. She might have forgiven Jacob and they could have moved on from his indiscretion if it had been a stranger, but she hadn't been able to move past the fact that her boyfriend had been with her father while they had been together.

"Emmett was ready to kill both my dad and Jacob, that's why he skipped town so fast." Bella sighed, having finally finished her story.

"What happened with your dad?"

"Oh he's still in town somewhere. We haven't talked since he fucked Jacob. I think he's ashamed and afraid to face me."

"He's probably afraid of having to face Emmett," I chuckled. "He's huge and intimidating!"

We stayed at the restaurant until they closed just swapping stories about ourselves. I told Bella a little more about my music career and how well my next album was coming along. Never having been one to pay too close attention to the goings on in music, Bella hadn't made the connection between me and my stage name. I was happy to find out that even with her limited knowledge, she knew several of my songs.

Over the next several weeks, Bella and I saw each other a lot. We explored each other in every way possible – no surface of her house went untouched; kitchen counters, tables, even the hood of my Saab had served us well a couple times. Bella even taught me how to ride her Harley, and we took it out on smaller road trips all the time. One particular day, we took a trip to a lake outside of town to cool down and halfway there, Bella decided she wanted to try something new.

While I drove along the deserted road, Bella climbed from behind me and sat down facing me. She quickly unzipped my pants and had her fingers wrapped around me before I could even think to stop her, making me moan loudly as she started pumping me. The pants were on the tight side, giving her very little room to move. "Bella? You gotta stop what you are doing. I'm gonna kill us both." She didn't stop her ministrations. Thankfully we were driving on a deserted road; not a lot of people came this way. I spotted a somewhat secluded spot and drove the Harley towards it, parking the bike away from sight if someone should happen to pass by.

Putting both my feet on the ground to steady the bike, I grabbed onto Bella's waist and attacked her mouth. She had my dick out of my pants in seconds. Putting both her hands on my shoulders, Bella lifted herself up just enough to angle herself on my dick. Holding onto her waist, I helped position her before pulling her down on me with as much force as I could muster. The impact and depth of my penetration made her moan loudly into my mouth.

It was a little awkward to try to keep the Harley steady while pumping in and out of Bella. She noticed my dilemma and started to bounce on top of me; I now only had to keep the bike upright. Being the little exhibitionist that Bella was, she was really turned on from our little romp out in the open, and it didn't take long for her to come hard and long on me. She was still riding out her spasms when I felt my balls tighten and shot my load into her.

A little spent, we just held onto each other, trying to calm down our ragged breaths. Bella was nuzzling my neck when a giggle erupted from her. I leaned back and looked at her quizzically. "I can't believe we just had sex on my Harley out in the open. Fuck, that was hot!" she laughed. Looking at her I could only smile. Letting my fingers ghost over her face, I could only feel amazement over the fact that this wonderful creature was mine. She was mine just as much as I was hers. Unable to keep my mouth off of her, I kissed her lips gently. Bella was filling my heart like no one else ever had. Only her. _Only you. _Some days it was hard for me to fathom that she was with me. _My goddess._

We both had come through tough times; hers had been much tougher than mine. In the end we both rose through the ashes together, my tattoo an anthem for both of us.

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**ENDNOTES**: I love hearing from my readers. If you have a minute to spare, please leave a word or two. :)


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